


my wandering days are (all i have)

by theformerone



Series: shikasaku week 2019 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Fluff, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-26
Updated: 2019-03-26
Packaged: 2019-12-18 13:23:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18250718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theformerone/pseuds/theformerone
Summary: Presupposing Sakura goes on a Post-War-Find-Yourself-Journey-and-Shikamaru-Tags-Along, what if she didn't come back?





	my wandering days are (all i have)

**Author's Note:**

> for day 2's prompt, you wake at dusk

Sakura wakes at dusk these days. Gets up from her bedroll and cracks her back first thing in the 'morning'. She rolls over onto her knees, then to her feet, and does a few simple kata to warm herself up for the day. Then, she has at it. 

They stopped in Mist for a while sometime after Sakura's thirty-fifth birthday. Shikana had been all but raised there, and didn't remember anywhere else on their travels, except for when the wandering bug bit Sakura, and she whisked her daughter away to Shikkotsu, or to the seal on Naruto's little cottage on an inlet just off Uzushio, where he said she was always welcome if she wanted home without the burden of it. 

She started the women's night school in Mist because she wanted to. She told Mei what her plans were, and the Mizukage happily shoved the funds needed and the women interested Sakura's way. Sakura foisted the paperwork on Shikamaru, who settled quite well into being an administrator (all things considered), while Sakura spent her evenings teaching kunoichi and civilian women ancient and modern medicines. 

She had taught village doctors and healers all around the elemental nations on their travels after she had gotten all of the gambling out of her system. Helping the next person, or town along just seemed like the natural thing to do. Before, their only plan was to win at every bar, tavern, or casino Tsunade had lost at on her own travels. Now, the journey picked them instead. 

Sakura had seen more of the world at thirty-five than she ever thought she would have when she was nineteen, drunk, and brave enough to fill out the paperwork requesting leave. Her shishou had put her request on pending, which gave Sakura an intermediary-protection status that ensured she was still a shinobi of Konoha, but not currently affiliated with the village. Kakashi had kept her file on pending, and so had Naruto. 

It had been hardest for Naruto to wrap his head around why she needed to leave. But when Sai (and Yamato. And Kakashi. And Sasuke) had reminded him that he and Sasuke had already had their great adventures outside of the village, he understood. Sakura needed her own great big adventure. It had just lasted a lot longer than anyone had expected it to. 

She doesn't know if she ever plans on coming back. If she ever plans on allowing Haruno Shikana to become a Nara, and heir of her clan the way the Nara elders keep pestering Shikamaru. She doesn't know if she wants to trade the good that she does out here for the good she can do inside the village walls. Out here, Sakura sees the people she helps. She makes tangible differences in people's lives. 

And what's more, she isn't beholden to anyone. Not even Shikamaru. She could gather Shikana in her arms and leave him at a moment's notice, and he would look for her and find her, and let her stay gone, just because he knew her that well. 

But she doesn't want to leave. She wants to pad quietly through their cheap apartment, and kiss her sleeping daughter on the forehead. She wants to open the door a moment before Shikamaru's key taps the lock, to welcome him home through the front door. She wants to heat up the left-overs she took out of the freezer to thaw, so they can share a meal together as his day ends, and before hers begins. 

Tomorrow, or even the day after that, this life in Mist could end as abruptly as it began. Sakura has trained up a good number of doctors, and Shikamaru has learned to draft contingency plans for one of Sakura's flights of fancy; if they go, the night school, and the new doctors in Mist would all be just fine. 

Now, Sakura says, "Welcome home," with the dusk-light slatting warm and bright over her face, piercing through the mist just so Shikamaru can smile, and wonder how she can be so lovely as he says, "I'm back."


End file.
